THE parents of a seven-year-old girl say they are being forced to teach her from home because there is no room for her at local primary schools.

Since moving to Rishton in March, Brian and Julie O'Shaughnessey have been unable to find a school able to take their daughter Lucy, even though there are two within minutes of their Clifton Street home.

Lucy left her last school, Salesbury CE, when her family moved to Rishton. Her parents thought it would only take a couple of weeks to get her settled into a new school but, four months on, they still have no idea if she will have a school to go to, even after the summer holidays.

Both Rishton Methodist School and St Peter and St Paul's Primary School said they were full, and last week an independent appeals panel at Lancashire County Council, normally used to make decisions on high school applications, agreed with the schools.

Brian said: "We had to move Lucy between schools once before when our old house in Billington was knocked down, and we had no problem getting her in at Salesbury. "But when we got here, we were told all the classes were full with 35 children and they couldn't take any more."

Lucy's elder sister, Claire, 14, has stayed at Beardwood School, Blackburn, while her two stepsisters attend Norden High School in Rishton.

Brian said: "Taking her further away on a daily basis is not an option. She needs friends she will see out of school. Our real concern is that her education is now suffering because she isn't at school daily.

"We are teaching her at home but she really needs to be at school. We have been through all the appeal panels but they have said there is nothing that can be done."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said no comment could be passed on individual cases, but added: "Primary schools control their own admissions but once they are full, as these ones are, there is nothing that can be done. Schools can only have so many children and once they are full, they are full."